The Black Friday Special.

As we are all waiting on the typical large, once-per-year Black Friday update to reveal a glimpse into the game’s future, and the attached sale (the one with actual discounts), I decided to do a little special of my own and revisit the Killennium Butcher Vignette.
This is the one that started this part of the hobby for me when I uploaded my first post about half a year ago to Instagram. I was quite proud of my write-up of the events, only to have to cut it up until it was nigh unrecognizable.
The fight at that time was bloody and incredibly close, and whilst it did net me a strain for my games to come, the wish uttered in the end was merely one of fury.

Vignettes are a great way to enjoy KD:M as a more singular experience, as opposed to the lengthy campaign play of a regular settlement.
This particular one is probably a bit intense when used in an attempt to show off the game or to draw in new players, as the Wishseekers have a lot to look out for on their gear grids. Still, for players with enough patience (or interest) or who are familiar with the game, the Killennium Butcher offers a story with no less than 8 endings, two of which unlocking strains for future campaigns.
I got this when it was first released at the start of the year and as soon as I saw the Wishseeker minis I knew I had to get the set.

In this story, the four Wishseekers – Brave, Forgot, Hollow and Red – are set upon the perilous path of stealing a wish from an especially loathsome Butcher. It’s wrath is ancient and its demeanor bone chilling, will they survive long enough to treat with the stars?

Whilst the titular Killennium Butcher is still very much a Butcher, this Level 2 and 3 version of the monster changes a few key aspects, giving it its own unique flavor.
This Butcher only has 3 passives on level 2:
Infectious Lunacy – stacking tokens on survivors for brain damage taken, eventually applying the Frenzy brain trauma to them. This one is well known.
Self-aware – at the start of each monster turn the top AI card is revealed and discarded if it is a (B) basic card.
Scorn – this trait adds escalating effects to the fight the more +1 DMG tokens the monster gets during the fight. These tokens will be gathered by basic attacks made against frenzied survivors, removing the status from the target and gaining their tokens.
This also means there is no Berserker or Fast Target trait, so it doesn’t reshuffle its hit location deck each and every turn – showing off just how small that deck actually is, and there is also no Lantern Trophies. It does not need a second timer towards certain doom.
Together with a new cold-themed trap and an additional (A) AI card, this Butcher is much more about the quality of its attacks, rather then the quantity.

“Quickly” on the Wishseekers:
Red gains additional STR-tokens on her spear for each survival action she performs, and she profits from various weapon types – she is a spear specialist benefitting from sword mastery.
Brave gains heart-tokens (unique to him) every time he is encouraged while standing. He can spend these tokens for various effects, or stockpile at least 3 of them to eventually gain 1 survival per turn.
Hollow generates loads of armor when she wounds with her dagger or when she is attacked whilst she has monster controller, she is also immune to bleed and severe injuries but ceases to exist as soon as she has 0 armor at all hit locations.
Forgot has a strong single attack weapon with a limited ability to manipulate the HL deck. She also carries a tome that can trigger a book event possibly reverting some of the Butcher’s growing power.

It is also important to note that the Wishseekers cannot use Surge.

After finding and surrounding the dreaded monster, Hollow was the one to go first. She dashed into the perfect position to use the Dragon Armor’s effect – jumping exactly 5 spaces and attacking with an additional +2ACC +5STR.
She hit all 3 times, gaining +1 armor to all her hit locations on the first wound she dealt, as well as +1 courage for the lot of them by knocking the monster down! What an opener! The other 2 wounds were dealt as well, just a little later.

Forgot activated next. Her glasses allowed her to put the previously wounded deathblow back to the top of the hit location deck and she took the chance to swing – and she crit, learning Mighty Strike (FA) as well!
With he ability of her sword we did reveal the trap amongst the next 3 hit locations and whilst we could discard any non-trap card, I opted to just put all 3 cards back on top of the deck, with the trap the furthest down.
Brave was up next and whilst he missed both his attacks despite the monster on the floor, he would surely just need some encouraging before things would line up nicely. So, Red encouraged him, giving him a heart-token and her spear a +1STR.
Before she could stab the Butcher, Forgot dashed away from the monster, just in case Red managed to hit all 3 times. But she merely hit twice and wounded on none as she would still needed an 8+ to deal any damage.

11 cards remaining, the Killennium Butcher got up. Kick was the card on top of the deck and it got discarded, instead we would be attacked with: Infinite Kick! What an upgrade.
I let the Butcher go after Hollow – just a planned – which gained her 3 armor in all hit locations. To top it all off, the attack only hit once. Of course after Hollow had taken the knockback there would be a second card: which was Wild Carve. This one hit all 3 times and dealt 1 more extra damage after everything else was resolved. With no body the bleed did nothing to Hollow.

As the next round started for the Wishseekers I made up my mind to send Brave to the monster to maybe trigger the trap because he is wearing fur gear, knowing he would not be affected by the knock down effect, well, I did not think of the attached attack.
He did manage to hit the monster in the back and surprisingly…, it was the trap. Hey, who could have seen that coming? Blast Chill – knocks down all survivors not wearing fur gear within 3 spaces and deals monster level brain damage to them, also preventing them from getting up until the end of the next monster turn.
Brave had no choice but to tank the 3 hits for 2 damage each.
With Hollow out of commission for this round, Red encouraged Brave again for another heart token before she moved in and attempted her attack. 2 hits got through and.., we drew the trap again.
Luckily Red, being a spear specialist, could roll to see if she could dodge the trap on a 7+. And she did it! She rolled a 9! The trap was then shuffled back into the deck and we drew another hit location.

With the power of sword specialization she was able to assign rolls and attacks in a way that knocked the Butcher down again as everyone gained another +1 courage.
Oh.
Brave lost an eye to that. He saw the truth and his death tasted sour. This would mean he would be able to self-encourage if downed, giving him a +1STR-token as well each time.
Forgot also hit Bold, gaining a +1STR-token for the fight, which did not feel quite as bad as when you get this result in a regular game. She then dashed in and attempted one more wound. She managed, this time not revealing quite as drastic portents to doom.

9 cards remaining, the monster stood up once again. It drew Bite as it targeted Brave. so there was no re-draw. Strangely he was the worst-best target for this attack. To nobody’s shock the Butcher bit his head clean off, but Brave was saved by his one-of Life Elixir.

One more encourage for Brave – he clearly needed it. But, at this point he would finally begin generating 1 survival at the start of his act. Red then followed up with an attack. 3 beautiful clean hits and with the help of sword spec, I made sure the first wound went to the spot that gave the monster -2TGH for the rest of the round. Thanks to that, the other two hits also wounded and Red was able to back off happy with her contribution to the round.
Brave attempted his attack next and despite having seen the truth, as he wounded the monster, the reflex of the Thick Cape still triggered, dealing 2 brain damage to him.
Forgot did not hit her swing before Hollow took a stand right in front of the monster, hitting twice more and dealing a wound before she got shoved away and knocked over. Not quite what I wanted, but close enough.

Only 4 cards remaining already. The monster drew Bite again. And despite it targeting Red, this was the point when the fight began feeling easy. Red dashed away backwards and as the Butcher followed, it was unable to reach its target.

Forgot was behind the monster and took her chance, she hit and wounded, scouting out the trap yet again, before she got knocked back and out of reach. This meant that Hollow would just step away for the time being, as Brave was unaffected by most of the trap.

Could Red do it again?
With confidence she stepped up to the brutish fiend and as she gracefully landed one hit after the other, the spear failed her miserably in the end. The trap was triggered, knocking her to the ground, sapping not only her sanity, but also the monster pummeled her relentlessly, hitting twice.
Brave needed to do something, and with so few cards remaining in the deck, he spent a heart-token to give himself +3STR for his next attack and he missed badly for it.

3 cards remaining, the monster discarded Wild Carve this round and instead used Kick on Hollow. She got hit twice, flew backwards as the Butcher charged after her with its basic attack, dealing two more hits.
After all was said and done, Hollow still seemed fairly healthy (6/8/5/7/5).

Red was left without survival so she moved up a little further and ate her Seasoned Monster Meat for +3 survival and a +1STR-token. Brave and Forgot also just moved up towards the fight.
Hollow attempted her own attack at this point, and for as good as things were generally looking, fighting a Butcher is typically a dance on a knife’s edge. The trap was drawn yet again. Hollow was knocked down and the brain damage dealt to her caused Frenzy. With the basic follow-up it easily sucked up the tokens from her.

This removed Frenzy as a status from the survivor as well as any tokens they had gained and transferring them to the Butcher. So whilst Hollow was already able to use her survival again, the Butcher now had a +1SPD and +1DMG-token each. And Scorn’s effect gave each Wishseeker -1ACC.

3 cards remaining and reinvigorated, the Butcher discarded Kick and drew Wild Carve instead. As Hollow was knocked down she missed out on the “free” 3 armor to each hit location as the monster turned and ran towards Brave. I did not believe he would be able to tank the damage so he ran away (very fitting for his whole deal) and funnily enough this meant Red took 1 damage and a bleed from the extra effect of the attack.

Red then took a step to the front of the monster, blinding it with the light of her lantern and attacked, if she were able to wound it one more time we could get rid of Bite for good!
She was able to barely get in a single hit and wounded just right on a 5+.

Hollow came next – she jumped for the monster’s blind spot and drew the trap AGAIN!? She took only 2 hits from the attack, but Red was now frenzied.
Desperate, Brave was moved in, having spent his remaining heart-tokens on +3STR and +1SPD for the attack. He only got 1 hit out of 3 and just barely wounded. The monster was knocked down again though, giving 1 more courage to each of them.
Forgot also ran over, a desperate strike against the downed creature, she hit, but failed the wound in the end.

1 card remaining, the Butcher stood up once again. It discards Wild Carve only to draw… Wild Carve. 4 hits against Forgot – she dodged 1 hit to the body and her armor soaked the rest. And the follow-up knocked down Brave as he got hit in the head.

Forgot just straight up attacked and missed to start off the round. We felt like we were so close to winning whilst also just an inch away from certain doom to at least one Wishseeker.
Brave encouraged himself, gaining +1STR and he went in for the attack, this could be it, but.., he fell short, only wounding once. The Killennium Butcher was still alive.
But he did knock it down once again, distributing another courage throughout the group. Hollow triggered her Bold (+3 survival/+3 insanity) and she saw her chance to attempt the killing blow. With the monster on the ground and her able to dash away and jump in with her armor set, the 5 she rolled was just enough to do it!

The Butcher was defeated! And Hollow’s wish was fulfilled.

So, this was the third different ending I got, and whilst it was not the second strain I am missing I am happy with the result as Hollow is my favorite of the four Wishseekers.
I always seems to get a bit caught off guard by how volatile this and Butcher fights in general can be. This vignette, especially if you make frequent use of Hollow’s armor set can feel a bit on the easy side but then again, the low statline of the Wishseekers and the fact that you can’t surge has quite the impact on the tempo of the fight. This time around we got dealt very little brain damage and as soon as people begin taking Frenzy trauma regularly the monster escalates very noticeably. Scorn applies -1ACC first, then -1MOV and finally you are allowed to only move OR activate during your act.
So, the fight can be fairly easy but.., well, miss loads or be unable to deal with certain very punishing AI cards and the monster quickly snowballs horribly into a frenzied flurry.
In my first playthrough of this vignette, the Butcher drew Lantern Frenzy, targeted Hollow and ground her to dust in 2 or 3 rounds, before doing the same thing, just quicker, to Brave.

Of course, you might want to lose that first fight against the Killennium Butcher anyway..

If you have not picked up the Killennium Butcher Vignette, you might wonder if you should get this on Black Friday? Well, the same as with all White Box content applies: If you like it/the models/the idea enough – and can afford it – go for it.
But to help you make an at least slightly more well-informed decision: Besides of what I have showcased here today – a fight against a vignette monster, 4 unique characters with special models and a story with 8 possible outcomes – you get 6 rare gear cards and a new weapon proficiency.
Once you have lost to the Killennium Butcher at least once, you will be able to replace the Lvl2 and 3 version of the regular Butcher during any of your regular campaigns (but you will have to stick with your choice for that campaign – or the Poots-police will get you!). Beating it will reward you with 2 pieces of rare gear and the option to pivot into the new weapon proficiency.

Most regular monster expansions will likely offer more to you in the long run content-wise, especially if you are looking at the current “big 4” – Sunstalker, Dragon King, Frogdog or Black Knight. Of course all of these are also more expensive.
Still, this vignette is an excellent pick-up for Black Friday to spice up the Butcher and its tried and true methods. The fight feels very different due to the applied changes and.., it would seem we are looking at 50% off for KillyB this year. This is going off the fact that it was included in a Black Friday 50% off category being spotted on the official shop for about half a day during the course of the week.

As of writing this (by the time this is posted, yesterday), a bunch of new images were shown around the discord coming from backer kit as well as the info that we are looking at a terrain pack for the 3D showdown board. Exciting times!

For now, thank you very much for your time, this felt a lot longer than I’d thought it would be initially. Anyway, if you are looking to pick stuff up for Black Friday, good hunting to you! There will surely be deals, models that get sold out quickly, new info to be mesmerized by (I sure am by the Seer pics) and the chance to complete a more baseline collection at a discount!
May your Frozen Wish be granted!
Amathul